Tunnel Vision
by htd
Summary: "Kissing Dino there, in the cell, made him feel a bit like they were the only people in the world, made Tsuna's existence narrow down to just the two of them. And that, he supposed, was reason enough." D27, beware of gore and other questionable content.


_AN: Written for a friend. This has gore, death, sex, and violence, so reader beware.  
_

* * *

He assumed the passage of time would be more obvious. The cell had a single window, and in the beginning, as they plotted escape, they would track the sun's angle and scrape a line on the wall with a rusted nail Dino pulled from the single bed to signify the passing of a day. It wasn't until what they believed was the fifth day that the illusion broke. There was never a window, and they'd been there for two weeks.

Since then, time hadn't mattered so much.

"How long do you think it's been?"

"Who knows?" Dino shrugged. "Forever, that's what it feels like."

Tsuna rotated his shoulders and arched his back, joints popping, muscles stiff from disuse. "You'd think," he started, but his throat was too dry. He swallowed and started again: "You'd think someone would have come by now. Reborn."

"They can't come if they don't know where we are," Dino said reasonably. He was always reasonable, and Tsuna didn't know why. Sometimes it felt like Dino was pulling the things Tsuna most wanted to hear from his head and speaking them out loud like that would make them true. "Don't worry. They'll come soon."

The bed squealed in protest when Tsuna got up. The room was small—between the bed and the wall where Dino sat, there probably wasn't even three feet. Tsuna tried to get him to swap, tried to force Dino to switch who had the bed and when, but Dino shook his head and said _you're my cute little brother, so I've got to take care of you _every time. It was beginning to piss him off, truth be told, how Dino could still talk like he could fix the situation. He couldn't. Neither of them could.

God, but he wanted to know what day it was.

Tsuna settled himself on the ground next to Dino, close enough that their sides pressed together. "You're really cold."

"The ground's cold, too," Dino said. He laughed. "Sorry." He was always laughing. Just what the hell was there to laugh about?

His face was sallow and dirty. Tsuna licked his thumb and wiped away a piece of something—yesterday's dinner maybe—stuck to Dino's cheek. Without his men, he was useless, so no matter what he said, all his grand proclamations and blustering, Tsuna was the one taking care of _him_.

He wanted to tell Dino words wouldn't be enough to save them, but Tsuna figured the words were more for Dino himself than anything else.

The door rattled—he and Dino had long since decided that the door, at least, was real—and opened. Tsuna huddled closer to Dino and tried to pretend he wasn't shaking, that he didn't wonder if he wasn't about to die every time the door opened.

But not this time—again. This time, as before, a man stepped inside, giving them a narrow view of the dark corridor beyond their cell, and put a single tray with a single plate of food on the floor.

He said something in Italian to Tsuna and sneered. He looked to Dino for translation, but Dino wasn't listening. His head had dipped to the side, lolling onto Tsuna's shoulder. It couldn't have been comfortable with the difference in their heights, but Dino didn't seem to mind.

The door closed again, sealing them off from the outside world. Tsuna pushed Dino away and got up to fetch the tray.

"Only one again," he said dully.

"It's all we need." Dino watched him. "I don't really want any."

"There's nothing else. If you don't eat, you'll die."

Dino smiled, one that didn't reach his eyes. "I'll eat it if you feed me."

The exchange was a familiar one. All the meals they brought were the same—one tray, one portion of some greasy, charred meat, and one cup of water—and every word out of Dino's mouth was the same, like a record skipping.

He liked to think having a pattern eased Dino's mind, or maybe that it was for his sake. Whatever the reason, Tsuna followed the routine: he rolled his eyes and picked up a helping of the meat with the plastic spoon and held it to Dino's mouth.

Dino opened his mouth, but somehow, most of the food spilled off the spoon, sticking to chin and dribbling down his chest. His shirt was already a mess of meals past. For a guy who looked like he got more food on him than in him, though, Dino remained surprisingly cheerful.

"Thanks," he said.

Tsuna helped himself to a spoonful, grimacing at the taste. "No problem."

When the tray was emptied, Tsuna slid it across the floor toward the door and leaned over to clean Dino up. This was the part he could handle, could let himself go to. Dino would remain still, would let Tsuna indulge in his momentary role of caretaker. He wouldn't complain about the weird things either, about the way Tsuna would choose to lick the food from his face rather than swipe it off with his fingers.

When he was done, Dino tilted his head toward Tsuna, and Tsuna would close the distance, an uneasy kiss. Another new development.

The first time was Dino's doing, during those early days when they still watched the window. It was when they were still taking them out, one at a time, for interrogation. As they listened to the sound of the door rattling, Dino had surged forward and kissed Tsuna. At the time, he'd apologized.

"I didn't want to do this here," he'd said. "But I don't want to miss the chance."

They'd never mentioned that exchange again, but Tsuna kept kissing him. He wasn't sure if it was because he wanted to or because there was simply nothing else to do.

Kissing Dino there, in the cell, made him feel a bit like they were the only people in the world, made Tsuna's existence narrow down to just the two of them. And that, he supposed, was reason enough.

* * *

Tsuna fell asleep on the floor, his head cradled in Dino's lap. He woke up on the stiff, tiny bed. Dino was gone. Panic seized his heart as Tsuna bolted up. The dim hanging light on the ceiling was swaying back and forth, a gentle rocking, like it did whenever the door opened and closed.

Dino was gone—and Tsuna was alone.

Were they interrogating him again? Would Dino come back bleeding and bruised? Would he come back at all?

Tsuna eased himself off the bed and went to Dino's corner. The floor was cold, just like Dino said, so it was easy to pretend his teeth were chattering from that rather than fear.

Somehow, he must have drifted off to sleep again because one moment Tsuna was sitting on the floor, tears springing from the corners of his eyes, and the next he was back on the bed and Dino had returned. It happened in what felt like a single blink.

"Dino?" His voice shook.

"Something wrong?" Dino didn't look at him, didn't move, but the sound of his voice alone was enough to bring Tsuna's anxiety crashing down.

"I thought you were gone for good," he said, easing himself off the bed. He settled himself down next to Dino again, and as he did, a strange feeling came over him, one akin to déjà vu.

"I didn't go anywhere," Dino assured him. "I told you before, I didn't I? I won't ever leave you."

Had he said that? It sounded like something Dino would say, so Tsuna supposed he had.

"Thank you."

"I love you," Dino said—and that was something he hadn't said before.

Tsuna must have been staring, his mouth open, because Dino started laughing. "You act like you didn't know."

"It's not—" He felt like he'd been punched in the gut, all the air sucked out of him. "I—you, too," he said breathlessly.

"We're not going to die here."

"I don't know about that one." Tsuna gave him a crooked smile. "If someone was coming for us, they already would have."

"They'll come," Dino promised.

Tsuna couldn't imagine being rescued. He couldn't imagine Reborn or Gokudera or anyone at all breaking into the compound and finding their cell. He couldn't imagine the relief they'd be sure to show upon seeing Tsuna and Dino alive, no matter how filthy they were or how much they stank from weeks without bathing. But he couldn't voice any of that, not when Dino was trying so hard to stay positive.

He took the image of them dying in that cell and shut it away. "I believe you," Tsuna told him.

There was nothing else to say.

* * *

Tsuna didn't know how long it had been going on, but it seemed that Dino was being taken out of the cell whenever he was asleep. He hadn't meant to find out, but one night, he'd been lying on the bed with his face turned to the wall, floating in that place between sleep and consciousness, when the cell door had opened. He hadn't turned around, but he'd heard the sounds of Dino being picked up and carried out.

He didn't understand why they had to carry him, but they did. Now, he stayed awake long enough to hear them come in and take Dino. They always waited until he was in bed, presumably asleep. Tsuna couldn't figure out why, but something told him not to ask Dino about it. Some small voice in the back of his mind whispered to him, telling him to observe.

Something was wrong, something beyond the simple fact that he and Dino were being held prisoner, and Tsuna was determined to find out what.

"It stinks in here," he grumbled. It was just after they'd finished eating. Dino was in his corner, and Tsuna was pressed to his side. The smell was a recent development.

"It's probably us," Dino said. He sounded like he thought it was funny, and the tone of his voice caused a frown to tug at Tsuna's lips.

"I don't think we smell that bad." Tsuna sniffed at his shirt. It sure as hell didn't smell _good_, but it wasn't the same as that rancid scent floating in the air. No, that was something else.

"It might be the food," Dino said.

"Maybe." Tsuna sniffed the air again. "Ugh, that smells terrible!" An alarm was sounding at the back of his mind. Tsuna might have paid it more attention had Dino's hand not fallen into his lap.

"Tsuna," Dino said. "Let's do it."

Tsuna's mind slammed to a halt. "Do… what?" There was no way Dino was saying what he thought he was. How could he even think to do something like where they were? Tsuna's stomach churned.

"You're still a virgin, right?"

"Dino… I don't—I don't want to." Tsuna couldn't look at him. "I don't feel well."

_Something's wrong, something's wrong, something's wrong_. His mind looped that thought over and over.

"Tsuna, please," Dino sounded strange. "I just want to watch you. I feel like I'm going crazy."

Watch him? Tsuna scooted away. The smell was instantly a thousand times worse. His stomach roiled. "Watch me do what?" Everything smelled so bad. Tsuna felt like he was going to vomit.

"If you just touch yourself—" Dino was pleading. He wouldn't move or look at Tsuna, but he wanted him to touch himself?

"I couldn't get off even if I did," Tsuna argued. A feeling of light-headedness overtook him, hitting him so hard that he had to lean back on Dino for support.

"Please," Dino said again, and Tsuna's hands were undoing his pants before he could stop to think about it.

What was he doing? _Why_ was he doing it? Tsuna pressed his face to Dino's shoulder and thought about how Dino tried to stay positive for them both. He thought about Dino leaving the room every night.

"Okay," he mumbled."Okay, I'll—just—"

"I love you," Dino said again.

If Tsuna closed his eyes and thought about before, it wasn't so hard. His cock was still limp, but when he imagined a different scenario, maybe if Dino had confessed to him before they ended up here, warmth began to build low in his stomach. He imagined Dino would have done it clumsily, like he did everything else when it was just the two of them. Maybe he would have gotten Reborn to let Tsuna go off somewhere alone with him.

Yeah, that's it. Dino would have taken Tsuna to some expensive restaurant or something, maybe one with a private dining area. They would have eaten together, and somewhere in between Dino spilling food on himself and manage to upend his wine glass, he would have told Tsuna that he loved him, and Tsuna would have smiled and turned bright red. He wouldn't have been able to look Dino in the eye, but he would have mumbled something back. _Me, too_, maybe. He wouldn't have been able to say it flat out. He wasn't good with words, but he would have tried.

After, Dino would kiss him, and that part wouldn't have been clumsy at all.

"You look good like this." Dino's voice brought him back to reality, back to the rancid stench and the dim cell, but it was enough. He was hard in his hand, and with Dino watching, Tsuna came, his body tensing and shuddering.

He was crying at the end of it, but he wasn't sure why.

"Thank you," Dino breathed into his ear, and Tsuna, for reasons he didn't understand, couldn't bring himself to reply.

* * *

Tsuna went to bed early. He couldn't bring himself to look at Dino. He didn't understand it, exactly, but he felt so nauseas. The cell stank terribly, and his head was pounding.

Something was wrong. Very, very wrong.

He didn't stay awake to listen to Dino leave that night, but apparently, he didn't need to. They didn't come for his companion that night. They came for him.

"Wake up, Sawada!"

Tsuna's eyes snapped open as a hand jerked his arm, sending him rolling off the side of the bed and hitting the floor with a painful _thud_.

"Hurry it up, the boss wants you."

It was the first time they'd bothered speaking in Japanese since the interrogations had ended. Tsuna looked over to Dino, but he was hunched over, unmoving. He'd probably fallen asleep already, waiting for them to come for him.

Tsuna wondered if he'd been as still and oblivious all those times before he'd realized Dino was being taken. It felt oddly like a betrayal, only he wasn't sure who was in the wrong.

The man lost his patience and kicked Tsuna in the side, sending him crashing into the wobbly metal bed frame. Tsuna let out a shrill, gasping sound.

"Get up," the man said again. "Get the fuck up!"

Tsuna didn't make him say it again.

The corridor smelled infinitely better than their cell. Tsuna felt guilty about the relief flooding his mind, but that didn't stop him from breathing deeply, inhaling the fresh air.

"In here," the man said, opening a door for him. "Go on, stop standing there like a goddamn idiot, Vongola!"

The boss was a heavyset man who looked to be in his late fifties. It was the first time they were to meet, so it made sense that Tsuna would trip not two steps into the room.

The old man's guards roared with laughter while he picked himself up off the ground and stumbled the rest of the way to the chair set out for him.

"So, Sawada," the boss said. "You've been pretty good to us."

He supposed they were referring to the lack of escape attempts and so said nothing.

"If Cavallone had been as quiet as you, he might've lasted longer, eh?'"

What was that? Tsuna didn't think he'd heard him correctly. "What—what do you mean?" What did they do to Dino?

The boss nodded at the man who'd escorted Tsuna. He turned around and the left the room.

In Tsuna's mind, the alarm sounded again.

"He tried to kill me," the boss said. He raised his shirt and pointed at an ugly-looking scar on his belly.  
"Right there, tried to gut me with a nail he'd taken out of the bed. We couldn't let that go. You understand."

Tsuna felt light-headed. "But," he started. He couldn't get any further than that. What the man was saying—it made no sense.

The guard from earlier returned. He had a laptop with him. The boss took it and angled it so Tsuna could see the screen.

"You remember the window, right?" the boss asked, and Tsuna's entire body went cold. The laptop screen flickered to life. "We had a video feed of your cell."

The display showed Tsuna sitting on the floor with Dino, only it looked _wrong_. Dino's left arm and right leg were gone, the leg of his pants and the sleeve both empty, and Tsuna's body was curled toward him as he jacked off.

"Illusions," the boss said after allowing Tsuna a moment to take in the sight, "can't fool machines. But they sure can fool humans, huh?"

No. No, that wasn't possible. "Wh—" He couldn't get the words out around the lump rising in his throat.

"When? Is that what you meant?" The boss had an indulgent smile on his face, sickly sweet. "I guess it's been a while. You've been here, what, two months? Your boy Cavallone tried to gut me right after we dispelled the first illusion."

The window—that first desperate kiss—was that it? "He's been—" He couldn't say it.

"He's been dead the whole time," the boss confirmed. "But we knew you wouldn't want to be alone. Right before we snapped his neck, we told him we'd leave him with you. You wanted that, right?"

No, no, no, _no._

The boss leaned forward, grinning so wide it looked like his face might break. "Where do you think the arm and leg went?" he stage-whispered. Laughter rose from his guards.

Tsuna shook his head. He couldn't bring himself to argue or scream or cry. He was paralyzed, his hands glue to the arms of the chair.

"Well," the boss said, sitting back again. "You had to eat something, didn't you?"

The words hit Tsuna like a punch to the gut. He thought of the greasy, charred meat, the way it would stick in his throat, the foul taste of it.

His body unfroze, and he pitched forward, gagging and spewing up everything in his stomach.

"We might have kept it up a little longer," the boss' voice rose above the sound of Tsuna's retching, "but you were starting to catch on, weren't you? The Vongola intuition must really be something to see through all those illusions." He sounded very nearly impressed.

Tsuna slumped out of the chair and fell forward onto the carpet. He was probably laying in his own vomit, but he couldn't bring himself to move. He wanted to die. The desire hit him, nearly painful in its intensity. He was going to lay there until they finally killed him.

"Don't worry, though," the boss told him. "We're getting tired of you, anyway. We sent the video feed to your Family. I'm sure they'll figure out where you are soon. You're ready to go home, right?" He threw his head back and laughed.

Tsuna closed his eyes against the roaring in his head and the burn of tears rising. He'd been so afraid of being alone that he'd ignored the alternative.

When he failed to respond, the boss seemed to lose interest. He ordered Tsuna to be returned to his cell. The last thing Tsuna heard as one of the guards scooped him up and carried him out of the room was the boss: "Are the cars ready? We need to be gone before Vongola arrives."

They dumped him in his cell and locked the door. Tsuna remained face down on the floor, the rancid stench of Dino's corpse flooding his senses.

Dino was gone, and Tsuna was alone. He unlocked the image of dying with Dino in the cell from his mind and played it like a lullaby as he closed his eyes, willing himself to sleep.


End file.
